After my death our beloved Church abroad will break three ways ... first the Greeks will leave us as they were never a part of us ... then those who live for this world and its glory will go to Moscow ... what will remain will be those souls faithful to Christ and His Church.~St. Philaret of NY

History often repeats itself, and if you have lived two lives, as I have done, you have a good chance of seeing the reenactment with your own eyes.

Liberation theology, of which not much has been heard for two decades, is back in the news. But what is not being mentioned is its origins. It was not invented by Latin American Catholics. It was developed by the KGB. The man who is now the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, secretly worked for the KGB under the code name “Mikhailov” and spent four decades promoting liberation theology, which we at the top of the Eastern European intelligence community nicknamed Christianized Marxism.

Liberation theology has been generally understood to be a marriage of Marxism and Christianity. What has not been understood is that it was not the product of Christians who pursued Communism, but of Communists who pursued Christians. I described the birth of liberation theology in my book Disinformation, co-authored with Professor Ronald Rychlak. Its genesis was part of a highly classified Party/State Disinformation Program, formally approved in 1960 by KGB chairman Aleksandr Shelepin and Politburo member Aleksei Kirichenko, then the second in the party hierarchy after Nikita Khrushchev.

In 1971, the KGB sent Kirill — who had just been elevated to the rank of archimandrite — to Geneva as emissary of the Russian Orthodox Church to the World Council of Churches. The WCC was, and still is, the largest international religious organization after the Vatican, representing some 550 million Christians of various denominations in 120 countries. Kirill/Mikhailov’s main task was to involve the WCC in spreading the new liberation theology throughout Latin America. In 1975, the KGB was able to infiltrate Kirill into the Central Committee of the WCC — a position he held until he was “elected” patriarch of Russia, in 2009. Not long after he joined the Central Committee, Kirill reported to the KGB: “Now the agenda of the WCC is also our agenda.”

During Kirill’s years at the helm of the WCC, liberation theology put down deep roots in Latin America — where the map now has significant patches of red. Russian military ships and bombers are back in Cuba for the first time since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, and Russia has also newly sent ships and bombers to Venezuela.

Pope John Paul II, who knew the Communist playbook well, was not taken in by the Soviets’ liberation theology. In 1983, his friend and trusted colleague Cardinal Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI), who at that time was head of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, discarded as Marxist the liberation-theology idea that class struggle is fundamental to history. The cardinal called liberation theology a “singular heresy” and blasted it as a “fundamental threat” to the Church.

Of course, it was and remains a threat — one deliberately designed to undermine the Church and destabilize the West by subordinating religion to an atheist political ideology for its geopolitical gain.

Now names — like Oscar Romero and Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann – not heard since the 1980s, when the Soviet Union was still en vogue, are again making international news. And here we are. The promoters of a KGB-inspired religious ideology, which once embraced violent Marxist revolution, are now denying its link to Marxism and to the KGB.

Each society reflects its own past. Down through the ages, everyone who has sat on the Kremlin throne — autocratic tsar, Communist leader, or democratically elected president — has been preoccupied with controlling all expressions of religion that might impinge on his political ambitions. When Ivan IV — the Terrible — had himself crowned in 1547 as Russia’s first tsar, he also made himself head of the Russian Orthodox Church. Tsarism and Communism may have been swallowed up by the sands of time, but the Kremlin continues this tradition.

Throughout its history, Russia has been a samoderzhaviye, a traditional Russian form of totalitarian autocracy in which a feudal lord rules the country and the church with the help of his political police force. The latter, whenever it had a sticky image problem, simply changed its name — from Okhrana to Cheka, to GPU, to OGPU, to NKVD, to NKGB, to MGB, to MVD, to KGB — ­and pretended it was a brand new organization.

Many deceased KGB officers must have been chortling in their graves on New Year’s Eve, 1999, when their old boss, Vladimir Putin, at one time my KGB counterpart, enthroned himself in the Kremlin. During the Cold War, the KGB was a state within a state. Now the KGB — rechristened FSB — is the state itself. According to a study published in the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, by 2003, some 6,000 former KGB officers were running Russia’s federal and local governments. The respected British newspaper the Guardian reports that President Putin has secretly accumulated over $40 billion, becoming Europe’s richest man.

In Russia, the more things change, the more they seem to stay the same.

This brings us back to Kirill/Mikhailov. In 2006 Archbishop Kirill’s personal wealth was estimated at $4 billion by the Moscow News. No wonder. In the mid-1990s, the Russian Orthodox Church’s Department for External Church Relations, managed by Kirill, was granted the privilege of duty-free importation of cigarettes as reward for his loyalty to the KGB. It did not take long for him to become the largest supplier of foreign cigarettes in Russia.

A few years ago, while Kirill was visiting Ukraine as the new Patriarch of Russia, a newspaper published a photo in which the prelate could be seen wearing a Breguet wristwatch, the price of which was estimated at 30,000 euros. The Russian newspaper Kommersant accused Kirill of abusing the privilege of duty-free importation of cigarettes, and dubbed him the “tobacco metropolitan.” Kirill denied having such a watch. He said the photograph must have been altered by his enemies, and he posted the “real” photograph on his official website. A careful study of this “real” photograph, however, shows that the Breguet watch had been airbrushed off his wrist, but its reflection is still clearly visible on a table surface beneath his arm.

Mikhailov and his KGB, rechristened FSB, are now doing their best to airbrush out the apron strings connecting them to liberation theology. Let’s not allow them to succeed.

— Lieutenant General (retired) Ion Mihai Pacepa is the highest-ranking Soviet-bloc official ever to defect to the West. His last book, Disinformation, co-authored with Professor Ronald Rychlak and published by WND, is currently being made into a Hollywood movie.

John Peter E. Presson, Protopsaltis of the Metropolis of Portland and the West

I must admit –I am as tempted by “The Christmas Blues” as any one else. Between a mix of childhood and adulthood memories, the constant barrage of social “expectations” of the perfect Christmas, the daily news footage of an “up” or “down” holiday season judged by the track of retail sales, and Christmas parties that I can’t eat the food. Additionally, as an Eastern Orthodox Christian who follows the traditional Julian Calendar (celebrating the Birth of the Saviour two weeks after everyone else), I get now up to two months of this nonsense rammed down my throat with the force of a pile driver. And it gets earlier and earlier every year. What’s an Orthodox Christian to do???

The Orthodox Church provides the perfect remedy to “The Christmas Blues” –a firewall between us and the world around us. The 6 week Fast of Preparation that begins the day after the Feast of the Apostle Philip and ends on Christmas Day know as the Nativity Fast or Advent for its focus on the events, persons and prophecies pointing to Our Saviour’s Incarnation in the flesh. Much in the same way as the Lenten Springtime that precedes the Feast of Pascha is intensely liturgical in its focus, so is the Fast of Advent that begins in late November, and ends on December 25 (Old Style). As one who has attended and chanted many of these services, this is one psaltis and liturgist’s little journey through this blessed time:

For us Advent begins somewhat uneventfully on November 15 –the day after the Feast of the Apostle Phillip, and proceeds as such until November 21.

November 21 –the Feast of the Entry of the Mother of God Into the Temple. It is on this Feast that we catch the first liturgical glimmers of the joy of Christmas: the Katavasiae from the 1st Canon of the Feast of the Nativity:

Christ is born! Give ye glory! Christ is come from Heaven, receive ye Him! Christ is on earth, be ye exalted! Sing unto the Lord all the earth and sing praises in gladness, O ye peoples; for He is glorified.

To the Son Who was begotten of the Father before the ages without change, and in this last days was without seed made flesh of the Virgin, to Christ our God, let us cry aloud: Thou Who hast raised up our horn: Holy art Thou, O Lord.

Rod of the root of Jesse, and flower that blossomed from his stem, O Christ, Thou hast sprung from the Virgin; from the mountain densely overshadowed has Thou come, O Praised One, made flesh of her that knew no wedlock. O Thou Who art immateriate and God, glory to Thy power, O Lord.

Since Thou art the God of peace and the Father of mercies, Thou hast sent unto us Thine Angel of Great Council, granting us peace. Wherefore having been guided to the light of divine knowledge and watching by night, we glorify Thee, O Friend of man.

The sea-monster spat forth Jonas as it had received him like a babe from the womb; while the Word, having dwelt in the Virgin and taken flesh, came forth from her, yet kept her incorrupt. For being Himself not subject to corruption, He preserved His Mother free from harm.

Scorning the impious decree, the Children brought up in godliness feared not the threat of fire, but standing in the midst of the flames, the chanted: O God of our Fathers, blessed art Thou.

The furnace moist with dew was the image and figure of a wonder past nature; for it burned not the Youths whom it had received, even as the fire of the Godhead consumed not the Virgin’s womb into which it had descended. Wherefore in praise let us sing: Let all creation bless the Lord, and supremely exalt Him unto all the ages

A strange and marvelous mystery do I behold; the cave is a heaven; the Virgin a cherubic throne; the manger a space wherein Christ God the Uncontainable One hath reclined. Him do we magnify.

From this point we chant these Katavasiae at every Sunday Matins until Christmas, and likewise at every Liturgy we chant the Kontakion of the Fore feast:

On this day the Virgin cometh to the cave to give birth to the Word ineffably, Who was before all the ages. Dance for joy, O earth, on hearing the gladsome tidings; with the Angels and the shepherds now glorify Him Who is willing to be gazed on as a young Child, Who before the ages is God.

On December 1st, 2nd and 3rd we celebrate the memory of the Prophets Nahum, Abbakum, and Sophanias who all pointed the way to the Advent of Christ.

On December 6th, we celebrate the Feast of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker of Myra in Lycia –that great archetype of Christian giving, to whom every Christmas gift given must be a reflection of. It is of note that in Orthodox nations (and even in some heterodox European nations) the traditional day of exchanging of gifts is done on this day.

On the Sunday that falls between December 11-17 (the second Sunday before Christmas) we find the first of the formal “Advent Sundays” –the Sunday of the Holy Forefathers –that is all the Old Testament Patriarchs and Prophets before and after the Law that preceded Christ:

Come, with faith let us all celebrate the annual memory of the Fathers before the Law, even Abraham and those with him. Let us honour, as is meet, the tribe of Judah. With Daniel, let us acclaim as a figure of the Trinity the Children in Babylon, who quenched the flame in the furnace. Cleaving steadfastly to the predictions of the Prophets, let us cry out with a great voice together with Elias: Behold a Virgin shall be with child and she shall bear a Son, Emanuel; which being interpreted is: God is with us!

From the Doxasticon of the Praises of Matins –Forefathers Sunday

December 17th, we celebrate the Prophet Daniel and the Three Children in Babylon: Ananias, Azarias and Misael.

The Sunday that falls between December 18 and the 24th is the next formal “Advent Sunday” –the Sunday before the Nativity of Christ –often called the Sunday of the Holy Fathers in which the entire genealogy of the Incarnate Saviour is commemorated from Adam and Eve to St. Joseph and the Theotokos. At Matins, the Synaxarion recounts every one of the Royal Lineage and at the Liturgy, the Gospel of St. Matthew (1:1-25) is read recounting the genealogy.

December 20th begins the Fore feast for Nativity:

O House of Ephratha, august and Holy City, thou glory of the Prophets, prepare the house wherein the Divine One shall be born for us.

A blessed remainder of the Advent season to all, and wishing you a glorious and peaceful Feast of the One Who is Incarnate for our sakes.

On
Saturday November 26, 2016 at 11:40am Protodeacon Job Chemerov passed
away to the Lord. Father Job served at St. Sergius Russian Orthodox
Church at Tolstoy Foundation for many decades before a fall ended his
ability to serve approximately three years ago. Eternal Memory!

Here is an excerpt froma Russian History of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church that was actually written as a seminary textbook translated by Reader Isaac Lambertson (SJKP):

§ 55

THE STATE OF ORTHODOXY IN THE SOUTH-WEST

THE UNION OF LITHUANIA

METROPOLITAN PETER MOGHILA

THE SUBMISSION OF THE METROPOLITAN PROVINCE OF KIEV TO THE PATRIARCH OF MOSCOW

As early as the reign of the Great Prince Vladimir, preachers from the Roman Church appeared in Russia, and his answer to them – "Our fathers did not receive the Faith from the pope" – shows that there had been attempts even before Vladimir's time on the part of the popes to subject the Russians to their authority. In the second half of the 11th century (1075), Pope Gregory VII offered Great Prince Izyaslav, who had been driven from Kiev, armed assistance to enable him to return to Kiev, if he would acknowledge his authority; but Izyaslav did not recognize that authority and returned to his capital without help from the pope. In the beginning of the 13th century (I204), Pope Innocent III promised Prince Romanus of Volyn to subject to him people, using the sword of St. Peter; but Romanus, pointing to his own sword, declared to the pope's emissaries that he needed no other sword than his own. In the mid-13th century (l253), Pope Innocent IV tried to persuade Prince Alexander Nevsky to come under the protection of the Roman see, but the hero of the Neva answered him, saying: "We know the true teaching of the Church, but we do not accept yours." In the mid-14th century (1347), King Magnus of Sweden, at the pope's instigation, proposed to the people of Novgorod that they enter into a debate concerning the Faith; but Archbishop Basil of Novgorod told him to go to the Church of Greece if he wished debate. During the reign of Tsar John the Terrible (1581), the sly Jesuit Anthony Possevin arrived in Moscow with the purpose of arranging a treaty between the Tsar and King Stephen Batory of Poland, and also of persuading the Tsar to recognize the pope. John showered Anthony with gifts and kindnesses to appease Batory, but in discussions about the Faith gave him a stern rebuff. On his return trip through Poland, Anthony Possevin advised the King and his fellow Jesuits to work towards a unia in every way possible, since it was impossible to achieve any direct submission of the Russians to the popes.

For me, this idea of "go to Greece to debate" sums up the essence of ROCOR's special place in Orthodoxy. If ROCOR disappears, then the GOC would lose a Sister Church. We already have no Sister Church parishes in America of the Romanians or the Bulgarians or the true Free Serbians. Will the GOC be the only one left in America if everyone left in the ROCOR runs off to the GOC for greener pastures?

While you were seizing the power, you asked the people to trust you, and made promises to them. But have those promises been fulfilled? You gave a stone instead of a loaf, and a serpent instead of a fish (Mt.7:9-10). You have substituted a soulless international concept for our Motherland. You have divided the people into enemy camps and plunged them into a fratricidal war of an unprecedented cruelty. You have openly replaced Christ's love by hatred; you have not brought peace, you have incited class hatred. There seems to be no end in sight to the war instigated by you, because with the hands of Russian workers and peasants you are trying to bring about the triumph of a phantom world revolution. No one feels safe under your regime, where there reigns a constant fear of search, robbery, arrests and exile or execution. You promise freedom, but there can hardly be anything more painful and cruel than violation of religious freedom. The press is blasphemous and full of a malicious ridiculing of sacred things. You have barred the entrance to the Moscow Kremlin – the sacred inheritance of all pious Russians. We know that our accusations will anger you and cause severe reprisals, that you will use our words as a pretext to accuse us of resisting your government. But the greater your anger and punitive acts, the more the truth of our accusations will be confirmed. Mark the anniversary of your rule by liberating those imprisoned by you; by ceasing bloodshed, violence, destruction and oppression of religion. Otherwise all righteous blood shed by you, shall be required of you (Lk.11:51), and 'you that take the sword shall perish by the sword' (Mt.26:52).

We know that Antichrist will come to rule the world for 7 years before the 2nd Coming of Christ. We know Antichrist will set up one world government and one world church. We know the Mystery of Iniquity already doth work in the world and already has control of banks, media, hollywood, schools, etc. As the antichrist spirit increases its manifestation in the world, battle lines are being drawn in the world to oppose it. One Western Christian from the world (Alex Jones) is fighting the battle, as best as could be imagined for someone outside the Orthodox Church, by offering a media option (InfoWars) free from globalists' control. He has a good understanding of the Mystery of Iniquity and recognizes the antichrist spirit. (We can overlook his chiliastic ideas of a "Liberty Movement".)

I want to tell the world community that while we will
always put America’s interests first, we will deal fairly with
everyone, with everyone — all people and all other nations. We will seek common ground, not hostility; partnership, not conflict.

Putin’s immediate reply:

We heard the statements he made as candidate
for president expressing a desire to restore relations between our
countries. We realise and understand that this will not be an easy road
given the level to which our relations have degraded today, regrettably.
But, as I have said before, it is not Russia’s fault that our relations
with the United States have reached this point.

Russia is ready to and seeks a return to full-format relations
with the United States. Let me say again, we know that this will not be
easy, but are ready to take this road, take steps on our side and do all we can to set Russian-US relations back on a stable development track.

This would benefit both the Russian and American peoples
and would have a positive impact on the general climate in international
affairs, given the particular responsibility that Russia and the US
share for maintaining global stability and security.

"... We will double our growth and have the strongest economy anywhere in the world. At the same time, we will get along with all other nations willing to get along with us. We will be. We will have great relationships. We expect to have great, great relationships. No dream is too big, no challenge is too great. Nothing we want for our future is beyond our reach...?

THE BRETHREN is a documentary about the monks of the world's northernmost monastery -- the Trifonov Pechengsky monastery located in Kolsky Peninsula, Russia. It was Russia's Northern outpost a few centuries ago. Later it was destroyed and abolished, and now it is being restored. The brethren of this monastery is small: 4 hieromonks and 2 monks. They are young, and every one of them has had his personal way to monastic ordination. All their life stories are nontrivial and even paradoxical. They are attempting not only to restore the buildings of the monastery but to build a temple in their hearts. The film features unique footage of inner life of the monastery.

• The reading of the Psalter calms the passions, and the reading of the Gospel consumes the tares of our sins; for the word of God is consuming fire. Once for forty days I read the Gospel for the salvation of a benefactor of mine and I saw in my sleep a field covered by tares. Suddenly there fell down fire from the heavens consumed the tares that covered the field, and the field remained clean. Puzzling over this vision, I heard a voice: the tares covering the field are the sins of the soul that benefited you; the fire that consumed them is the Word of God which you read for it.

He who lived in godliness and was adorned as thy priest, the sacrificer and minister of they mysteries divine, by thy divine command hath passed over from life's clamor unto Thee. Save him whom, as Priest, Thou didst accept, O Saviour; and because of thy great mercy, give unto him rest with the Just.

Give rest with the Saints. O Christ, to the soul of thy servant, where there is neither sickness, nor sorrow, nor sighing, but life everlasting.

The Ikos.

Thou only art immortal, who hast created and fashioned man. For out of the earth were we mortals made, and unto the earth shall we return again, as thou didst command when thou madest me, saying unto me: For earth thou art, and unto the earth shalt thou return. Whither, also, we mortals wend our way, making of our funeral dirge the song: Alleluia.

In thought I implore ye, hearken unto me: For with difficulty do l announce these things. For your sake: have I made moan; perchance it may proﬁt one of you. But when ye shall sing these things make mention, now and then, of me whom ye have known. For often have walked together, and together in the house of God have sung: Alleluia.

Rise now, all ye, and make ready, and when ye are set, hearken ye unto the word. Terrible, my brethren, is the Judgment Seat before which all we must appear. There is neither bondman nor freeman there; there is neither small not great; but we shall all stand naked there. Wherefore, it is good to sing together the psalm: Alleluia.

Let us all be consumed with tears, when we behold the earthly remains lying low: and when we shall all draw near to kiss, and peradventure to utter such things as these: Lo! thou hast abandoned us who love thee. Why speakest thou no more with us, O friend? Why speakest thou not, as thou wert wont to speak, but holdest thus thy peace who before with us didst say : Alleluia.

Why these bitter words of the dying, O brethren, which they utter as they go hence? I am banished, brethren. All my friends do I abandon, and go hence. But whither I go, that understand I not, neither what shall become of me yonder; but only God, who hath summoned me knoweth. But make commemoration of me with the song: Alleluia.

But whither now go the souls? How dwell they now together there? This mystery have I desired to learn. but none can impart aright. Do they call to mind their own people. as we do them? Or have they already forgotten those who mourn them and make the song: Alleluia?

Accompany ye the dead, O friends, and come ye to the grave with heed, and there gaze ye steadfastly, with understanding; and make ready your feet. All youth is fallen to dissolution there; there all the ﬂower of life is faded; there are dust, and ashes. and worms; there all is silent; and there no man saith : Alleluia.

Lo! now behold we him who lieth here, but ne'er shall lie before us more. Lo! already is his tongue stilled, and lo! his mouth hath cased to speak. Fare ye well, O my friends. my children. Fare ye well, O my brethren! Fare ye well, O my comrades; for I go forth upon my way. But make commemoration of me with the song: Alleluia.

None of the dwellers yonder have returned to life to tell us how there they fare, our erstwhile brethren and our offspring gone before us to the Lord. Wherefore, again and oft we say: Shall we see each other there? Shall we see on brethren there? Shall we there again together say the psalrm: Alleluia?

We go forth on the path eternal, and as condemned, with downcast faces, present ourselves before the only God. Where then is comeliness? Where then is wealth? Where then is the glory of this world? There shall none of these things aid us, but only to say oft the psalrn: Alleluia.

Why dost thou untimely vex thyself, O man! Yet one hour, and all things shall pass away. For in Hell there is no repentance, nor further remission there. There is the worm that sleepeth not; there is the land, all dark and gloomy, where I must be judged. For I made not haste to say the psalm: Alleluia.

Naught is so easily forgot as mortal from his brother-mortal parted. If for a brief space we call to mind, yet straightway forget we Death, as we had not ourselves to die. Parents, also, are utterly forgotten of their children, whom from their own bodies thy have borne and reared; and they have dropped tears with the song: Alleluia.

I remind ye, O my brethren, my children, and my friends: Forget me not, when unto the Lord heart this thing, and mourn for me night and day. As said Job unto his friends, so say l also unto you: Sit ye again and say: Alleluia.

Leaving all things behind us, forth we go, and naked and grieving must present ourselves to God. For like the grass doth beauty fade. and man is but allured therewith. Naked wast thou born, O wretched one, and naked there must every man appear. Dream not, O mortal, of sweetness in this life, but only groan ever with the moan: Alleluia.

If thou hast shown mercy unto man, O man, that same mercy shall be shown thee there; and if on an orphan thou hast shown compassion, the same shall there deliver thee from want. If in this life the naked thou hast clothed, the same shall give thee shelter there, and sing the psalm: Alleluia.

Toilsome the way in which I must go hence, the which, in truth, I never yet have trod; and unknown is that land, and thereof knoweth no one anywhere. Awesome is it to behold my guides: most terrible he who hath called me, the Ruler of life and death, who also calleth us, when he willeth, thither: Alleluia.

If journeying from a home-land we stand in need of guides, what shall we do when forth we fare to a land to us still all unknown? Many leaders wilt thou then require, many prayers to accompany thee, to save the wretched sinner's soul; until thou come to Christ and say to him: Alleluia .

They who are in thrall to the material passions shall ﬁnd no pardon whatsoever there. For there are the dread accusers; there, also, the books are opened. Where, then, around about thee wilt thou gaze, O man? And who then shall succour thee? Unless thou hast led an upright life, and hast done good to the needy, singing: Alleluia.

Youth and the beauty of the body fade at the hour of death,and the tongue then burneth ﬁercely, and the parched throat is inﬂamed. The beauty of the eyes is quenched then, the comeliness of the face all altered, the shapeliness of the neck destroyed ; and the other parts have become numb,nor often say: Alleluia.

Hush, then; be dumb. Henceforward keep ye silence before him who lieth there, and gaze upon the mighty mystery; for terrible is this hour. Be silent, that the soul may issue forth in peace. For it to a great ordeal is constrained, and in fear doth oft petition make to God: Alleluia

I have beheld a dying child, and I have mourned my life. He was all agitated, and trembled greatly when the hour was come, and cried. O father, help me! O mother, save me! And no one then could succour him. but only pined away as they gazed on him, and wept for him in the grave: Alleluia.

How many suddenly are snatched even from the plighting of their troth, and united by a bond eternal; and without avail have made their moan unending, and have not risen from that bridal chamber! But there was both marriage and the grave, both union and disunion, both laughter and weeping, and the psalm: Alleluia.

With ecstasy are we inﬂamed if we but hear that there is light eternal yonder; that there is the fountain of our life, and there delight eternal; that there is Paradise, wherein every soul of Righteous Ones rejoiceth. Let us all, also, enter into Christ, that all we may cry aloud thus unto

God : Alleluia.

Hymn to Birthigiver of God. O all-holy Virgin unwedded, who brought forth the Light Ineﬁable, I make petition never ceasing and beseech thee, and entreat thee: Implore thou the Lord perpetually for thy servant who hath fallen asleep, O most pure One; that he may ﬁnd there remission of his iniquities in the Day of judgment. O All-pure One. For thou, O lady, hast boldness ever to beseech thy Son: Alleluia.

The Collect-Hymn.

Give rest with the Saints, O Christ, to the soul of thy servant, where there is neither sickness, nor sorrow. nor sighing, but life everlasting.

AD

AD

THE SISTER CHURCHES

The True Orthodox Churches of Romania, and Bulgaria, and with the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, and with the Synod in Resistance, are called by the Grace of the Lord to coexist in Mysteriological communion.

from §4 of “Schedule of Steps in the Union Process” Feb. 2014

VL AGAFANGEL PRAYER

Lord Jesus Christ, Holy Theotokos and all the Saints: keep our souls unharmed from the destructive influences of globalism, ecumenism, and sergianism, and give all of us the strength to endure the latest onset of persecution of the Church of Christ. Amen

QUOTE

"I have taken you in my arms, and I love you, and I prefer you to my life itself. For the present life is nothing, and my most ardent dream is to spend it with you... I place your love above all things, and nothing would be more bitter or painful to me than to be of a different mind than you.”

St. John Chrysostom

QUOTE

"If we have a good priest (or bishop), we give thanks to God. If a bad one, we endure him".

- old Russian saying

QUOTE

"And here is something to which I would like to draw your attention to – something about which very many do not think about. Father Archimandrite Constantine, whom probably many of you know, the reposed editor of the journal “Orthodox Rus’”, a profound Christian mind, considered that the most terrible among all the achievements of the communists was that the communists created their own false-church, a soviet church which they shoved onto the unfortunate people in place of the genuine Church which went underground into the catacombs. Do not think that I am exaggerating or that Father Constantine was exaggerating!

Once, in the year 1918, a Pan-Russian Church Council was held. At this Council, the entire Pan-Russian Church together with its first holy hierarch, Patriarch Tikhon anathematized, excommunicated from the Church not only the theomachists and godless ones themselves, but also all those who would collaborate with them."

~St. Philaret of NY

QUOTE

"To the Russians abroad, it has been granted to shine in the whole world with the light of Orthodoxy, so that other peoples, seeing their good deeds, might glorify our Father Who is in heaven, and thus obtain salvation for themselves. But if it does not perform this purpose and even abases Orthodoxy by its life, the Diaspora will have before itself two paths: either to be converted to the path of repentance, having acquired forgiveness through prayer to God and being reborn spiritually and to being capable of giving rebirth to our suffering homeland; or else being rejected by God and remaining in banishment, persecuted by everyone, until gradually it will degenerate and disappear from the face of the earth."

from Vladika John's report to the All-Diaspora Sobor in 1938

QUOTE

The apostasy of our times, to a degree unique in Christian history, is proceeding not primarily by false teachings or canonical deviations, but rather by a false understanding of Orthodoxy on the part of those who may even be perfectly Orthodox in their dogmatic teaching and canonical situation. A correct "Orthodoxy" deprived of the Spirit of true Christianity—this is the meaning of Sergianism, and it cannot be fought by calling it a "heresy," which it is not, nor by detailing its canonical irregularities, which are only incidental to something much more important.

- Russia's Catacomb Saints

QUOTE

Let it not be thought, however, that I affirm that it is necessary to prize every peace. For I know that there is a splendid disagreement and the most destructive unanimity. Yet one must love a good peace which has a good purpose: unity with God.

-St. Gregory the Theologian

QUOTE

... To pious Christians the fact that the world has fallen into godlessness is to them obvious, and they are ready to see it as an unfortunate historical inevitability ...

Professor Viktor Trostinkov

QUOTE

If you want to have assurance that you are saved, repent now that you are young and healthy and it is manifest that you left sin while you were still able to sin. But if you persevere in sin into your old age, why then you did not leave sin, but rather sin left you.

St. Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain

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Live in peace not only with your friends, but also with your enemies; but only your personal enemies, and not the enemies of God.

St. Theodosius of the Kiev Caves

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Judge not according to appearances, but judge righteous judgment.

St. John 7:24

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"If Russia is not ressurrected, a new Golgotha threatens the whole world."

Priest Vladimir Evsukoff 1980†

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A man who does not express a desire to link himself to the latest of the saints (in time) in all love and humility owing to a certain distrust in himself, will never be linked to the preceding saints and will not be admitted to their succession, even though he thinks he possesses all possible faith and love for God and for all His saints. He will be cast out of their midst, as one who refused to take humbly the place allotted to him by God before all time, and to link himself to that latest saint (in time) as God had disposed.

St. Symeon the New Theologian

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SCOBA, to which world orthodoxy gives such great significance, reproaching us for not belonging to it, actually is in no way a canonical organ. The Russian Church Outside of Russia was invited to take part in these conferences; however, our Church refused to send representatives there after clergy of the Moscow Patriarchate were invited. "We never and nowhere will sit at one table with them; by this our spiritual communion with the Universal Church is not broken."

Archpriest George Grabbe 1969

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"Let us always thank the Lord that we are in the Holy Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, which throughout the 80 years of its existence has trodden the straight, royal path of God, without ever turning aside and losing its way."

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The passions lying hidden in the soul provide the demons with the means of arousing impassioned thoughts in us. Then, fighting the intellect through these thoughts, they force it to give its assent to sin. When it has been overcome, they lead it to sin in the mind; and when this has been done they induce it, captive as it is, to commit the sin in action. Having thus desolated the soul by means of these thoughts, the demons then retreat, taking the thoughts with them, and only the spectre or idol of sin remains in the intellect. Referring to this our Lord says, 'When you see the abominable idol of desolation standing in the holy place (let him who reads understand)... (Matt 24:15). For man's intellect is a holy place and a temple of God in which the demons, having desolated the soul by impassioned thoughts, set up the idol of sin. That these things have already taken place in history no one, I think, who has read Josephus will doubt; though some say that they will also come to pass in the time of the Antichrist.

Philokalia

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There are three things that impel us towards what is holy: natural instincts, angelic powers, and probity of intention. Natural instincts impel us, when, for example, we do to others what we would wish them to do to us (cf. Luke 6:31), or when we see someone suffering deprivation or in need and naturally feel compassion. Angelic powers impel us when, being ourselves impelled to something worthwhile, we find we are providentially helped and guided. We are impelled by probity of intention when, discriminating between good and evil, we choose the good.

Philokalia

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The outward Gospel of social idealism is a symptom of loss of faith.

Fr. Seraphim Rose

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Impurity of intellect consists first in having false knowledge, ...

Philokalia

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Isn't Marx really the third of a trio with Darwin and Freud as a practical source in the war against revealed truth?

Fr. Seraphim Rose

Letters, 1972

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To: ROCA members from the MP

"You have to understand that you have long been in a false church, which implants in its members' souls, a false spirituality, which in turn takes root and grows stronger and stronger, the longer a man stays in it."

Bishop Athanasius, 2014

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Mankind has gone mad, and we see with horror the abyss into which it is being drawn. Let us lay aside every worldly care, and let us fall down in prayer and readiness for the dread Judgment of the Lord. Death will not come with bombs and poisons. Death has already come and take up residence with us and in us, and has made corpses of us, Mammon has overwhelmed this sinful world, which is dominated by Queen Science, Lucifer himself, which with one hand makes medicines and machines for man's foolish happiness and with the other terrorizes him by means of the bomb! Such is the sorry state of knowledge and the agony of the world through and through. Let us lift up our hearts.

-Photios Kontoglou (†1965) letter to Dr. Cavarnos dated 5/10/57

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"Psychopaths are a superior subspecies. We transcend humanity. We are Nature's Supermen. We deserve the subservience and availability of everyone around us. Luckily, every year 100-million people are born throughout the world. We have 100-million new choices every year."

-Sam Vaknin, self-realized psychopath

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Our Saviour placed the Church in the world in order to save the world, and Satan is always trying to place the world into the Church in order to destroy the Church.

attributed to Desert Fathers

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"If you see lying and hypocrisy, expose them in front of all, even if they are clothed inpurple and fine linen."

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"No one man, or group of men, can himself speak for the Church of Christ. It is nonetheless possible to speak from within the Church, in conformity with Orthodox tradition; and it is this that we shall attempt to do."